A new Fremont P-Patch, the Hazel Heights community garden, opens Monday with a celebration with supporters, neighbors and elected officials.

The event will take place at Hazel Heights, 4200 Baker Avenue Northwest (corner of Baker and Northwest 42nd Street) starting at 4 p.m. with official groundbreaking activities at 5 p.m.


Hazel Heights will have cutting-edge features that promote environmental sustainability, including a catchment system with an 8,000 gallon storage tank funded by a King County grant, according to a press release from the organizers.
The system will harvest rainwater runoff from the roofs of two nearby houses to irrigate the 19 P-Patch garden plots. Contributing to Seattle’s food security is another key aim. One of the plots, plus on-site fruit trees, will be maintained by volunteers to provide fresh produce for local food banks.

Elected officials who are expected to attend include; Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, King County Council member Larry Phillips, Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin and City Council member Jean Godden.

Hazel Heights is named in memory of longtime Fremont resident Hazel Hurlbert, who along with her husband, Don, first gardened and kept bees on the P-Patch land. The site includes a steep slope “critical area” that posed engineering challenges for site designer Barker Landscape Architects, but also offers views of the Olympic Mountains, the ship canal and Salmon Bay.

General contractor L.W. Sundstrom (of Ravensdale) expects to finish construction work within four months. Many of the Hazel Heights gardeners have waited for years on the City’s long P-Patch waiting list for the Fremont area.

Countless hours of volunteer labor and other donations have been contributed to Hazel Heights by hundreds of community members.

Major contributors, in addition to King County, include the State of Washington, the City of Seattle, the P-Patch Trust, Urban Sparks, the Fremont Neighborhood Council, the Seattle Foundation, the Norcliffe Foundation, the Greenwood Starbucks, Fremont’s Red Door Tavern, the Emerald City Gardens store, Frank Shields of Excavators Northwest, Dan Mageau of Geoengineers, and the Fremont Neighborhood Fund. The Fund also provided a $70,000 bridge loan towards the projected $350,000 construction costs
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The land was purchased from the Hurlbert family with a donation from an anonymous Fremont resident.

Additional funds are still needed, including to purchase topsoil, plants and tools after construction is complete. Tax-deductible donations made out to the P-Patch Trust can be sent care of the Hazel Heights Steering Committee, 4231 Baker Ave. NW, Seattle WA 98107; the Trust will match all donations up to $10,000.